Vettel pole: Di Resta 11thposted in F130 | 07 | 2011
WORLD CHAMPION Sebastian Vettel continued Red Bull's flawless streak of pole positions in 2011 when he stormed to the top of the timesheets for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix. Bathgate's Paul di Resta narrowly missed out on the top 10 shoot-out and lines up 11th in his Force India.
"It was close again today," the 25-year-old Scot, who set a fastest time of 1min 22.256secs in his Force India VJM04, admitted. "I had a bit of a messy run in Q1 on the super-softs for some reason, but other than that our prime run was very good.
"I was quite happy with the car and the lap just wasn't quite there. Maybe I could have been a little more adventurous on it. But it's a reasonable place to start the race and we're on the good side of the track for the start.
"In terms of our long run performance yesterday, we have to be fairly optimistic that we can continue where we left of and carry that into Sunday. The tyres came in a bit earlier than we thought today and I think that was the problem in Q1. I think we maybe got in too hard and they weren't really there at the end of the lap."
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Vettel meanwhile shrugged off the disappointment of his fourth-place finish six days ago at the Nurburgring, by storming to the 23rd pole position of his career.
The German's fastest lap of 1min 19.815secs was 0.163 seconds ahead of the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, who's team-mate Jenson Button starts third. The two Ferraris line up in fourth and fifth, but for the first time this season Felipe Massa outqualified his more illustrious team-mate Fernando Alonso. Vettel's Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber — winner in Hungary 12 months ago, and on pole for the last two grands prix in 2011 — could only manage a disappointing sixth, 0.659s behind the German.
The top 10 was rounded off by the two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, who starts seventh and ninth respectively, with Force India's Adrian Sutil forming the filling in the sandwich in eighth. Sauber's Sergio Perez is 10th.
Ominously for the rest of the field Vettel — already 77 points ahead of his nearest rival Webber, despite seeing Hamilton win last weekend in Germany — claims he has rediscovered his confidence after clinching his eighth pole of the season.
"I think it was a very good session for us," Vettel smiled. "Yesterday I think these boys were a little bit quicker than us. I'm very pleased with the result, we changed a lot on the car overnight. The boys were working very hard and they didn't get much sleep. To have a result like this today is the best way to say thanks.
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"I think they got back to the hotel around 5am. Straightaway I noticed the difference and was happier. If you are happier it is usually because car is better, and if you are confident you are also able to get more out of yourself.
"I've got the confidence back, today I felt much more comfortable in the car, now I'm looking forward to tomorrow." In contrast, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh admitted he was disappointed not to get a car on pole.
"It was tight," he admitted. "It's disappointing. But we've got both cars on the front two rows so it should be an exciting race. It's not result we wanted.
"Hamilton ran little wide at the last corner on the last lap, but neither were bad laps. It would just have been nice for him to have got pole. At least we should be competitive in the race. Both drivers had good runs on Friday, and we're not in a bad place. We'll try to make it exciting."
And Hamilton, who would have given McLaren its first pole since Canada last year, if he'd pipped Vettel, said he was unconcerned about being beaten by the defending world champ.
"It's still a great achievement," Hamilton said. "We knew from the last race that we have good pace. Yesterday was good, but today they (Red Bull) picked up the pace.
"To be on the front row is good though and we can pick up some good points from three tomorrow."
See more photos of Paul di Resta in today's qualifying
Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring — Qualifying Times:
1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault — 1m19.815s;
2. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m19.978s +0.163;
3. Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m20.024s +0.209;
4. Felipe Massa, Ferrari — 1m20.350s +0.535;
5. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari — 1m20.365s +0.550;
6. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault — 1m20.474s +0.659;
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes — 1m21.098s +1.283;
8. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes — 1m21.445s +1.630;
9. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes — 1m21.907s +2.092;
10. Sergio Perez, Sauber-Ferrari — No time;
Q2 cut-off time: 1m23.067s
11. Paul di Resta, Force India-Mercedes — 1m22.256s +1.994;
12. Vitaly Petrov, Renault — 1m22.284s +2.022;
13. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber-Ferrari — 1m22.435s +2.173;
14. Nick Heidfeld, Renault — 1m22.470s +2.208;
15. Rubens Barrichello, Williams-Cosworth — 1m22.684s +2.422;
16. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m22.979s +2.717;
17. Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth — No time;
Q1 cut-off time: 1m23.285s
18. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m24.070s +2.492;
19. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus-Renault — 1m24.362s +2.784;
20. Jarno Trulli, Lotus-Renault — 1m24.534s +2.956;
21. Timo Glock, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m26.294s +4.716;
22. Tonio Liuzzi, HRT-Cosworth — 1m26.323s +4.745;
23. Daniel Ricciardo, HRT-Cosworth — 1m26.479s +4.901;
24. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m26.510s +4.932.
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Jamie Edwardes